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Zakat Calculator: Gold and Silver Nisab

By Sami Adham · Law last checked: 2026-10-28

Zakat is a known right in your wealth. Use any currency, wherever you live. Work out an estimate here, then confirm it with a trusted scholar. Where scholars differ, we show both views and name them. We never choose for you.

Reference prices: world spot gold and silver on 2026-10-29 (gold-api.com, cross-checked with the open currency-api), converted at that day's exchange rates (Rates By Exchange Rate API). They are not your local shop price and they are not live: this page sends and receives nothing while you use it. 6 currencies have no reference price because their rates differ widely (IRR, SDG, YER, SYP, LBP, UGX).

How does this calculator work?

• Rate: 2.5% of your zakatable wealth, once a Hijri (lunar) year has passed on it.
• Nisab, both shown: gold 85 g of pure gold, silver 595 g of pure silver (common modern conversions of the classical weights). Silver is lower, so more people reach it; many scholars call it the more cautious choice. Many contemporary scholars use the gold level. Ask the scholar you follow.
• Gold by karat: grams × karat ÷ 24 = pure gold. 100 g of 21 karat = 87.5 g of pure gold.
• Debts due within the next 12 months are taken off first. This follows one contemporary view; the schools differ on debts, so ask a trusted scholar.
• Not counted: your home, car, furniture and tools; end-of-service pay you have not yet received; pension you cannot withdraw; interest earned (scholars say give it away, but it is not zakat).

What this page does not do

It does not give a fatwa. It does not cover Shia (Ja'fari) rules on khums. It does not collect, hold or pass on any money, and it has no ads. Numbers you type stay in your browser.

Mustahaqat does not collect money. We never hold your zakat, take a fee on it or pass it on. Pay the organisation directly, on its own website.

Where to pay your zakat →

What is zakat?

Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam. The Prophet ﷺ said, in meaning, that Islam is built on five pillars, and he named paying zakat among them, with the testimony of faith, prayer, Hajj and the fast of Ramadan (Sahih al-Bukhari 8; Sahih Muslim 16).

The Arabic word holds two ideas: purity and growth.

• Who pays it? A Muslim whose wealth, beyond basic needs, stays above the nisab for one full lunar year. The schools differ on some details, such as a child's wealth.
• How much? 2.5% on cash, gold, silver and trade goods. Crops and livestock have other rates.
• What is the nisab? 85 g of pure gold or 595 g of pure silver. These are common modern conversions of the classical weights (20 mithqal of gold, 200 dirhams of silver); some scholars use slightly different figures. The calculator above shows both. We do not choose for you.
• How is it different from sadaqah? Zakat is a duty, with a set amount, time and recipients. Sadaqah is voluntary: any time, for anyone in need.

Why does zakat matter?

It purifies the giver. The Quran says:

﴿خُذْ مِنْ أَمْوَٰلِهِمْ صَدَقَةً تُطَهِّرُهُمْ وَتُزَكِّيهِم بِهَا وَصَلِّ عَلَيْهِمْ ۖ إِنَّ صَلَوٰتَكَ سَكَنٌ لَّهُمْ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ سَمِيعٌ عَلِيمٌ﴾ [التوبة: 103]

Take from their wealth a charity that purifies them and makes them grow by it, and pray for them (Quran 9:103, meaning, Mustahaqat's rendering). Both ideas sit in one verse: purify, and increase.

Zakat cleanses the giver of sins (al-Tabari; Ibn Kathir) and, other commentators add, of miserliness (al-Razi, Mafatih al-Ghayb). The verse came down about a group who confessed a fault; most commentators apply it to zakat in general.

It does not shrink wealth. The Prophet ﷺ said, in meaning, that charity does not decrease wealth (Sahih Muslim 2588). The hadith says sadaqah; in the Quran (9:60) that word also covers zakat.

It is a right, not a favour. The Quran describes believers this way:

﴿وَٱلَّذِينَ فِىٓ أَمْوَٰلِهِمْ حَقٌّ مَّعْلُومٌ﴾ ﴿لِّلسَّآئِلِ وَٱلْمَحْرُومِ﴾ [المعارج: 24-25]

Those in whose wealth there is a known right, for the one who asks and the one who has nothing (Quran 70:24-25, meaning, Mustahaqat's rendering). When the Prophet ﷺ sent Mu'adh to Yemen, he said, in meaning, that zakat is taken from the rich among them and given to their poor (Sahih al-Bukhari 1395; Sahih Muslim 19).

"A known right": many commentators read it as the obligatory zakat (Qatada, Ibn Sirin); others as a set share given beyond zakat (Mujahid, al-Sha'bi). Either way, giving is a right in the wealth, not a favour.

So a person who receives zakat is not taking a favour. They are receiving a right the Quran names.

Who receives zakat? The 8 groups

The Quran names them in one verse:

﴿۞ إِنَّمَا ٱلصَّدَقَـٰتُ لِلْفُقَرَآءِ وَٱلْمَسَـٰكِينِ وَٱلْعَـٰمِلِينَ عَلَيْهَا وَٱلْمُؤَلَّفَةِ قُلُوبُهُمْ وَفِى ٱلرِّقَابِ وَٱلْغَـٰرِمِينَ وَفِى سَبِيلِ ٱللَّهِ وَٱبْنِ ٱلسَّبِيلِ ۖ فَرِيضَةً مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ﴾ [التوبة: 60]

Alms are only for the poor, the needy, those who work to collect them, those whose hearts are to be brought together, freeing people from bondage, people in debt, the cause of God, and the traveller cut off on the road: a duty set by God, and God is All-Knowing, All-Wise (Quran 9:60, meaning, Mustahaqat's rendering).

1. The poor (al-fuqara'): people without enough for basic needs. Today: a family that cannot pay for food or rent.
2. The needy (al-masakin): people who earn, but not enough, and may not ask. Today: a worker whose wage does not cover the family.
3. Zakat workers (al-'amilin 'alayha): people appointed to collect, keep and pay out zakat, paid from it for their work. Today: staff of an official zakat body.
4. Hearts brought together (al-mu'allafati qulubuhum): people given zakat to win or settle their hearts, such as someone new to Islam. The schools differ on whether this share still applies.
5. Freeing people (fi al-riqab): freeing slaves. The Hanbali school, and Ibn Habib among the Malikis, also include ransoming Muslim captives under this share (Ibn Qudamah, al-Mughni); the other schools limit it to freeing slaves or helping those buying their freedom.
6. People in debt (al-gharimin): people who borrowed for a lawful need and cannot repay, and people who took on debt to make peace between others. Today: a family facing eviction over unpaid rent.
7. The cause of God (fi sabilillah): the most debated group. The four schools read "in the way of God" mainly as volunteer fighters: the Hanafis add that the person must be poor; a report from Imam Ahmad also includes Hajj for a poor person. Some modern scholars read it more widely. We show the debate and do not choose.
8. The stranded traveller (ibn al-sabil): a traveller cut off from their money, even if rich at home. Today: a worker stuck without a ticket home.

The verse begins with the poor and the needy. Most scholars hold that obligatory zakat goes to poor Muslims; some scholars hold another view, which we set out on where to pay your zakat.

The schools differ on details in every group, for example whether zakat must be spread across all eight or may go to one. We do not give rulings. Ask a trusted scholar or your country's official zakat body.

What does zakat do for the economy?

• It moves idle money. Zakat is charged each year on wealth that is kept, not on income. So Muslim economists argue it nudges people to put savings to work instead of hoarding them.
• It reaches people who spend. A family in need spends what it receives on food, rent and school. So economists argue zakat supports demand in the market.
• It is a safety net. It reaches the poor, people in debt and stranded travellers, and in many countries it works alongside state programmes.

How big could it be? Estimates vary a lot. A range you will often see is "1.8% to 4.34% of GDP" across OIC countries. It goes back to the economist Monzer Kahf (1989). He estimated zakat for eight Muslim countries (Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria and Turkey). The range is his eight-country average, from the narrowest to the widest view of which wealth is zakatable. It is not a study of all 57 OIC countries, though later reports, such as Salaam Gateway in 2016, quoted it that way. And it is what could be collected, not what is collected.

Real collection is far lower. In Indonesia, potential zakat for 2011 was put at 1.59% to 3.82% of GDP. Actual collection was US$182 million, around 0.02% of GDP (Salaam Gateway, citing an IRTI estimate).

The idea has critics too. The economist Timur Kuran (1995) argued that government-run Islamic redistribution has not transformed the economic lives of Muslims. We include his view because you deserve the whole picture.

Not Muslim? You can give to the same causes

Zakat is a duty for Muslims. Kindness is for everyone.

Zakat is an obligation on Muslims who meet its conditions. If you are not Muslim and these causes speak to you, you are welcome to give to them too: to the poor, the needy, people in debt and stranded travellers, in the same spirit. That gift is sadaqah: voluntary charity, open to everyone. We never call it zakat.

The Quran praises those who feed others:

﴿وَيُطْعِمُونَ ٱلطَّعَامَ عَلَىٰ حُبِّهِۦ مِسْكِينًا وَيَتِيمًا وَأَسِيرًا﴾ [الإنسان: 8]

They give food, though they love it themselves, to the needy, the orphan and the captive (Quran 76:8, meaning, Mustahaqat's rendering). It also says:

﴿لَّا يَنْهَىٰكُمُ ٱللَّهُ عَنِ ٱلَّذِينَ لَمْ يُقَـٰتِلُوكُمْ فِى ٱلدِّينِ وَلَمْ يُخْرِجُوكُم مِّن دِيَـٰرِكُمْ أَن تَبَرُّوهُمْ وَتُقْسِطُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهِمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُحِبُّ ٱلْمُقْسِطِينَ﴾ [الممتحنة: 8]

God does not forbid you to be kind and fair to those who have not fought you over your faith or driven you from your homes; God loves those who are fair (Quran 60:8, meaning, Mustahaqat's rendering).

Voluntary charity (sadaqah) may be given to anyone in need who is not at war with Muslims; this is widely held in the schools (al-Nawawi, al-Majmu'; Ibn Qudamah, al-Mughni), citing Quran 60:8 and 76:8. Pay an official zakat body where you live. Mustahaqat does not collect money.